Deer Strike

Observable behavior, and an explanation offered some years ago by a game
warden in response to essentially the same question.

In other words, nothing, and the voice of authority. We live among deer
here too, and I've observed them. Nothing in their observable behavior
indicates an inability to "reconcile" (whatever that means) another
creature moving at 45-60 mph. I do wonder if deer crash into each other
in the forest, but I have not mounted deer-cams in sufficient quantity
to get any useful information.

If you have acceptable facts upon which to refute such a claim, please share
them.

The Great Spaghetti Monster (bless his noodley appendages) told me so.

Jose
--
The monkey turns the crank and thinks he's making the music.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

"Jose" wrote in message news:XC1Lg.20846

Observable behavior, and an explanation offered some years ago by a game
warden in response to essentially the same question.

......Nothing in their observable behavior indicates an inability to
"reconcile" (whatever that means) another creature moving at 45-60 mph.

.....other than the apparent inability to judge speed and/or closure rate on
vehicles moving at those speeds. Or perhaps many deer just have poor vision
across the board. I don't know. But I have observed, and asked, and
received what seemed a plausible explanation from a person who had studied
wildlife, so I accept that until confirmed information comes my way. Do you
have any of that confirmed information, Jose? If not, then you're no
better off than I am, are you?

....other than the apparent inability to judge speed and/or closure rate on
vehicles moving at those speeds.

"apparant" is not the same as "actual". Deer get hit by cars. That is
the observable fact. There are many possible explanations which do not
involve "inability to judge speed...". The standard explanation is that
they freeze in the headlights (I've seen that). They are not paying
attention because they are in rud (I've seen that - it applies to people
too btw). They expect the car to jump out of the way, like an animal
might (I have no way of knowing whether this is true or not). There are
probably scores of others.

But I have observed, and asked, and
received what seemed a plausible explanation
from a person who had studied
wildlife...

That's a good start, but the question remains open. It's merely a
=plausable= explanation. If it is disprovable by experiment, it would
even qualify as a scientific theory. But that's all. To test the
theory you'd reasonably need to test their ability to judge speeds, and
see if there is a correlation between those their (varying) abilities
and their (varying) rates of impact. I don't think such a study has
been done, and it doesn't sound easy.

Do you
have any of that confirmed information, Jose? If not, then you're no
better off than I am, are you?

I am better off, because I know that I don't know.

Jose
--
The monkey turns the crank and thinks he's making the music.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

The deer have a greater right to be there than you do bozo. The deer are on
the ground walking and you're flying around in an unnatural contrivance in
order to satisfy your need for ego gratification. No sympathy here.


"John T" wrote in message
m...
It happened to me August 29, 2006.

I went out for night currency with a short hop to Winchester, VA (KOKV). I
flew there VFR since the only clouds in the forecast would be up in the
Class A realm. Besides, I don't fly VFR in the DC ADIZ very often and I
could use the practice there, too.

The only interesting thing at KOKV were the birds. It's not often I see
birds (not bats) flying around well after dark, but there were a few
sandpipers flitting around Winchester.

The flight home to Leesburg, VA (KJYO) from my night currency landings at
Winchester was uneventful. The landing, on the other hand, had a bit of a
surprise in store.

Rounding out on final, I had the numbers nailed and came in over the
threshold right at 65 MPH indicated (yes, MPH, not knots). Just after the
nose gear touched, I saw a shadow cross the center line from right to left
and into the beam of the landing light: Deer! A split second later came a
thump and a slight pull to the right which was easily corrected.

The engine remained running fine with no unusual vibrations or noises so I
pulled off the runway at the first turn-off, cleaned up the aircraft and
scanned around for damage. As my scan came to the starboard horizontal
stabilizer, I saw in the faint light bent metal and busted fiberglass. It
was painfully obvious the thump I'd felt was not something being run over
by my landing gear as I'd desperately hoped, but rather a second deer.

I parked the plane in its usual spot and assessed the damage. Sure enough,
the starboard stabilizer had its leading corner busted and bent back with
the rear corner twisted back over the trim tab. It was also twisted back
enough that the corner connecting to the empennage was pulled out almost 2
inches. There was wrinkling on the starboard side of the empennage and
vertical stabilizer and the beacon was knocked loose from the fiberglass
cap. Well, "knocked loose" may be a bit of a misnomer as there was a bit
of fiberglass still attached to the beacon which was left hanging by the
power cords. The damage to the port side was worse as the force of the
impact evidently twisted the entire tail section to the port side. Also,
the impact appears to have severed at least one of the control connections
as the control lock was in the yoke, but I was able to move the elevator
almost from stop to stop.

I walked back to the scene of the impact to pull the carcass off the
runway - after all, there's no sense leaving it there for the next poor
soul to land - but there was nothing on the runway. Not even a blood
trail. The only apparent evidence of the culprit was the appearance of two
pairs of green eyes reflecting my flashlight beam at the edge of the
woodline west of the field and they ran off when I approached. After the
damage done to the plane, I was hoping to have something to at least kick.

All things considered, I was lucky. This may end up being minor compared
to the damage that could have been caused had the first deer struck the
prop.

Pics and vids posted on my site for interested parties.

--
John T
http://sage1solutions.com/TknoFlyer
Reduce spam. Use Sender Policy Framework: http://spf.pobox.com
____________________

"Jim Macklin" wrote in message
news:111Lg.6906$SZ3.5449@dukeread04...
We can learn and alter our perceptions. But to do so
safely, we have instructors and training. Or you can follow
the "Hey, watch this" learning method and the survivors
learn if they remember after the drunken state wears off.

And that's relevant to the statement "There's nothing in their brains that
can reconcile another creature moving at 45-60 mph" how?

Humans are incapable unless trained by life experiences.
The fact that cars still try to beat trains, that
pedestrians step out in front of cars, that ...

And that's relevant to the statement "There's nothing in their brains that
can reconcile another creature moving at 45-60 mph" how?

Remember, humans have a brain that can think ahead, animals
brains may remember, but an animal can not see a parked car
and think about the tires being flat, the driver drunk and
passed out, the paint shines but will fade in the sun, and
all the thousands of things humans do think about.

And that's relevant to the statement "There's nothing in their brains that
can reconcile another creature moving at 45-60 mph" how?

Nothing in your post in any way addresses the original comment. Did you
have a point relevant to the original comment or my reply? If so, you might
want to post *that*.

"John Gaquin" wrote in message
. ..
There's nothing in their brains that can reconcile another creature
moving at 45-60 mph.

You say that based on what facts?

Observable behavior, and an explanation offered some years ago by a game
warden in response to essentially the same question.

People get run over by cars all the time. That doesn't prove that "there's
nothing in their brains that can reconcile another object [creature] moving
at 45-60 mph". It just proves that an individual human misjudged the
situation.

Your game warden reference is meaningless, assuming he just a
run-of-the-mill game warden, as opposed to one that has done some sort of
in-depth biological study of the brain responses of deer (frankly, I doubt
*anyone* has done such a study, but I think it's a safe guess your game
warden hasn't).

If you have acceptable facts upon which to refute such a claim, please
share them.

I claim that you are in fact a hideous, green oozing monster who simply
pretends to be human. You are disguised with a supernatural effect that not
only hides your genuine appearance, it prevents you from even knowing your
true identity. In fact, the supernatural effect is known ONLY to me, for
reasons unknown even to me.

If you have acceptable facts upon which to refute my claim, please share
them.

Pete

"Jose" wrote in message news:Wt2Lg.20873

I am better off, because I know that I don't know.

Then that would make us even. The difference seems to be that I'm willing
to accept that someone else might know.

JG

"Peter Duniho" wrote in message

People get run over by cars all the time.

LOL now there are two who have no idea why deer run in front of cars, yet
are willing to insist that my posit is dead wrong.

I am better off, because I know that I don't know.
Then that would make us even. The difference seems to be that I'm willing
to accept that someone else might know.

So am I. I'm just not convinced you have found that person.

Jose
--
The monkey turns the crank and thinks he's making the music.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

John Gaquin wrote:
"Peter Duniho" wrote in message

People get run over by cars all the time.

LOL now there are two who have no idea why deer run in front of cars, yet
are willing to insist that my posit is dead wrong.

I love reading people in an argument!

I have no idea whether deer can understand something moving at aircraft
speeds. I don't know whether they can comprehend that or not.

But....some critters have a natural response that we might misread. I
have observed that antelope will run a straight line (at speeds up to
60 mph, by my car's speedometer) while running "from" a car. Funny
thing is, they might run parallel to the path of the car/road. I have
observed--and been told--that they won't jump a fence, but will run a
heck of a long way. They CAN jump, but usually don't. Why not?
Because for, oh, a half a million years or so, their main defense has
been speed. Just run. Fast and straight. Not much can keep up with
them.

A deer's main defense is freezing. I don't know why they jump in front
of the vehicle, but they do.

Don't read human behavior into animals. They aren't human. They
reason quite well for their world, but it can be difficult for them to
adapt as fast as we do.

cheers.